A few days ago I came across such a wonderfully caustic review of a book I had just read that I felt the need to check out what the writer of that review (www.goodreads.com/user/show/4272284-kristina) did enjoy. Patricia McKillip was high on the list, so I picked one, pretty much at random, and read through it. I'm glad I did - it was well written, didn't allow the romance to ride away with the story, and - at least for the first two volumes - had direction and push. Unfortunately, the author seemed to run out of steam almost from the beginning of volume three, and although the pace picks up again for the finale, much of this part of the tale is wordy, windy, and overly dramatic. The female lead, who makes a very promising start in book two, largely fades into the background, only chipping in when the author realizes that she's forgotten about her. Other strong female characters are also wasted, and we end up with a father and son duo whirling round each other while an assortment of other characters clap hands at appropriate moments.

Although there are obvious nods to Tolkein in this tale - it sometimes felt as if McKillip was writing against LOTR - it reminded me very much of TH White's later books in his Arthurian cycle. It places McKillip alongside Hobb, Tepper and Wynne-Jones as a writer who can both tell a tale and write a sentence. I don't know whether she has the range of Tepper and Wynne-Jones. I'll have to see.